The Japanese Way of Politics, by Gerald L. Curtis (TPB, 1988, $1)
Japanese Politics Today: Beyond Karaoke Democracy?, edited by Purnendra Jain (TPB, 1997, $1)
The 1990s were supposed to be the start of a new Japan. With Emperor Hirohito dead in 1989, the horrors of WWII could be left behind. Instead Japanese politics slid into chaos, and its economy into recession.
Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, edited by Michael Weiner (TPB, 1997, has underlining, $1)
"The contributors to this volume show how an overarching discourse of homogeneity has been deployed to exclude the historical experience of minority groups in Japan. The chapters provide clear historical introductions to particular groups and place their experiences in the context of contemporary Japanese society."
Women, Media and Consumption in Japan, edited by Lise Skov (TPB, 1995, $2.50)
"Written by anthropologists, sociologists and literary scholars who draw on and analyse Japanese marketing materials, the essays in this book cover visual and print media for middle-aged women, housewives, and single women in their 20s, as well as the vast market for those in their teens."
Unmapped Territories: New Women's Fiction From Japan, edited by Yukiko Tanaka (TPB, 1991, $2)
Early Modern Japan, by Conrad Totman (TPB, 1993, $3)
The era of early modern Japan starts in 1568 when Japan was reunited, and ends in 1868 when the Tokugawa Shogun order disintegrated, and foreign powers took control. The first half of those 300 years were ones of growth. Rural land produced more and more food. The population doubled. Cities expanded, and culture bloomed. Then in the last 150 years life turned hard. Crop failures, too many people, and no more land to turn into farm land led to years of hunger and unrest. Add to that the arrival of Russian and American war ships, and the era of the Shogun was over.
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII, by Iris Chang (TPB, 1997, $2)
"In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured and murdered... The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone which saved almost 300,000 Chinese." I am always amazed at the parts of history of which I am ignorant. Reading this book helps you understand part of anger and distrust in the present day between China and Japan.
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, by Ivan Morris (TPB, 1994, originally published in 1964, $2.50)
Not an easy read, but an interesting one. The Tale of Genji, a novel written by a court lady, Marasake Shikibu, is one of the world's greatest literary masterpieces, as well as one of the longest. Virginia Woolf was one of its first admirers when it was translation into English in 1925. Here was a novel written in the early eleventh century, by a great woman writer, about a world few westerners knew anything about. The World of the Shining Prince is a study of Genji, and of its author, and of other sources from the time.
Japan culture was an insular one. When Victorians made contact, they found these people strange indeed, with their culture, their many wives, and their many mistresses. Genji was the West's first introduction to actual Japaneses culture and history.
At this time in Japan only men were allowed to learn and write in Chinese. This left only women to write literature in Japanese. Women of this period held many rights of property and freedom, but only if there was a powerful male around to back them. Strangely, parts of Japanese culture were matriarchal, while others were patriarchal. Ironically, most of the literature of the time that survived was that which had been written by women.
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Look for these books in the Japanese section.
